Exposing E3’s misleading “truths” about vouchers

On its website, the New Jersey pro-voucher organization E3 (“Excellent Education for Everyone”) offers its version of the “truth” with respect to 14 “myths” it claims are being perpetrated by opponents of vouchers.

In the interest of open, honest debate around vouchers, NJEA reprints, verbatim, E3’s website information, and then offers its responses – “The REAL TRUTH” – to E3’s arguments:

Myth #1 Providing funds for children to attend private schools will weaken the already under-funded public schools.

E3’s “TRUTH” - New Jersey's public schools are hardly under-funded, and only approximately 40% of the money spent on education actually makes it to the classroom. With some children leaving the public systems for other schools that cost less per pupil, there should be even more money for traditional public schools.

The REAL TRUTH: In 2001-2002, the Milwaukee voucher program cost more than $58 million – $26 million of which is paid by Wisconsin taxpayers in the form of higher taxes, all at the expense of public schools statewide. Even worse, only 20 percent of Milwaukee’s voucher students had attended public schools the previous year, meaning the public is now paying for the education of students who never attended public schools.

If vouchers were enacted in New Jersey, where would the money come from? Higher taxes? Health care spending? Or out of public school spending? What do you think? In addition, E3’s claim that only 40% of money spent on education makes it into the classroom is absurd on its face. Personnel costs alone are over 60 percent of most school budgets. If you take one child out of a class of 25 children with a voucher, the 24 children left behind suffer, because FIXED COSTS still have to be paid, but now with less funding. You still have to pay for the teacher, the janitor, the principal, the cafeteria staff, the secretaries, the nurse, the librarian, the electric bill, and snow removal.

In Milwaukee in 2001-2002, 19 students per school left the public schools for voucher schools, taking their entire per pupil spending with them. Fixed costs still had to be paid at the schools they left. Even worse, Milwaukee voucher schools end up receiving $1,000 more per pupil than the city’s public schools – not much of a bargain for taxpayers.

Myth #2 School Choice does not improve education.

E3’s “TRUTH” - In Milwaukee, which has had school choice for 10 years, public school student performance on statewide standardized tests has risne [sic] steadily. Scores for every ethnic group in every subject has [sic] risen every year for 6 years. That's the power of competition!

The REAL TRUTH: Public school student performance HAS risen in Milwaukee, but it had nothing to do with vouchers. It had to do with the decision of the state legislature to provide additional funding to reduce class sizes and other reforms. Fair “competition” can never exist between public and private schools, because the playing field is uneven. Public schools must accept every child; private schools choose which children to accept, and can turn students away when they reach capacity.

Until 1995, public school students in the SAGE program in Milwaukee (and now in effect throughout Wisconsin) routinely out-performed voucher students in all subject areas. The legislature responded that year by no longer requiring voucher schools to administer state tests, or to report student achievement data. As a result, Wisconsin taxpayers have no way of knowing “the power of competition,” since voucher schools are no longer accountable to them.

Myth #3 School Choice is unnecessary - public education is doing well and improving.

E3’s “TRUTH” - The evidence is overwhelming that public education is not improving. Indeed, it is getting worse - even as school budgets rise. In the 3rd International Math & Sciences study of 21 nations, U.S. high school students ranked 16th in Science and 19th in Math and dead last in Physics. American business spends $60 Billion a year teaching high school graduates how to read and write. And, over the past 11 years, the number of companies forced to provide remedial education to employees rose 5 fold! All this holds true for New Jersey, as well. Just ask most parents if they think public schools are improving.

The REAL TRUTH: New Jerseyans respectfully disagree. A statewide poll of New Jersey voters taken in June 2003 by Abacus Associates found that 42 percent of New Jerseyans felt their public schools have improved over the past five years, while only 18 percent felt they had not.

It’s always interesting when voucher supporters trot out international data to make their case. They know that no other nation begins to make the effort to educate as many of its children as America, often “tracking” students into vocational training early in life. As a result, most international comparisons compare apples and oranges (a small percentage of students in other nations vs. a much larger percentage in the United States). Even so, in 2002, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum released the Global Competitiveness Report, 2001-2002, show the United States ranked SECOND among 75 nations. It ranked FIRST on the constellation of variables the WEF refers to as contributing to innovation. Innovation, of course, has nothing to do with standardized tests. But it may have something to do with America’s global economic pre-eminence.

Meanwhile, it’s no wonder E3 doesn’t talk about New Jersey public school achievement, which is at an all-time high. For example, New Jersey students rank FIRST in the nation in scores on Advanced Placement exams for college credit. More than 80% of New Jersey high school graduates plan to continue their education after high school – the highest percentage ever. And New Jersey has been named as one of the four “smartest states” in the country based on the quality of its public elementary and secondary schools.

There is also encouraging news from New Jersey’s Abbott districts, which receive funding for pre-school programs, class-size reduction, professional development and after-school programs. Between 1999 and 2002, Abbott 4th grade students gained 23.9 points on the ESPA test, compared to a 16.8 percent gain by non-Abbott students, closing the “achievement gap” significantly.

Myth #4 School Choice allows the private schools accepting vouchers to choose which students it wants from among the pool or applicants, thus 'creaming' the public school population.

E3’s “TRUTH” - In States where choice is available, private schools accepting voucher students must do so by random selection only. They also cannot consider disciplinary history, race, gender or religion when reviewing applicants. Traditional public schools, on the other hand, routinely 'cream' the student population through such devices as magnet schools, tracking and advanced placement.

The REAL TRUTH: It has been proven that in both the Milwaukee and Cleveland voucher programs, “random selection” of students is not being honored. In both programs, the parents of voucher students tend to earn more money and to better educated – both indicators of higher academic achievement. This is the very definition of “creaming.”

It is a fact that private schools – not parents – do the choosing about the students they admit, and they routinely discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender, academic ability, family background, disciplinary history, and special needs. In fact, THREE-QUARTERS of private and religious schools in the United States do NOT offer special needs programs.

And why doesn’t E3 mention the fact that the Milwaukee voucher program – which it loves to tout as a “success” – has an annual attrition rate of more than 30 percent? The students who leave each year – primarily low-achievers and other “difficult to educate” children – are sent back to the public schools, while their voucher money – which comes out of public school budgets – stays with the voucher school for the remainder of the semester. Their parents, meanwhile, have no right of appeal.

Myth #5 Parents will use the wrong criteria to choose schools, or they will make bad decisions for their children.

E3’s “TRUTH” - This condescending assumption ignores evidence that poor or uneducated parents are just as capable of distinguishing between good and bad schools as anyone else. Competition will cause schools to put out more information about themselves so parents can become better-informed consumers.

The REAL TRUTH:No one ever said poor or uneducated parents are incapable of distinguishing between good and bad schools. Of course they can. But it’s a fact that voucher schools in Milwaukee and Cleveland are not truly open to all parents (see “Myth #4” above). Private and religious schools have no interest in students who have learning disabilities or other special needs, and absolutely no interest in students with disciplinary problems. Elite, non-sectarian private schools open their doors almost exclusively to privileged families.

Interestingly, this past year, 504 New Jersey parents were granted permission to transfer their children to other public schools. Of those, 312 – or 62 percent – were parents of children in charter schools. A total of 10 charter schools in New Jersey have now had their charters revoked by the state, usually for inadequate student achievement or failure to meet the state’s core curriculum content standards.

If student achievement matters – and it should – then parents should know that in New Jersey, public schools routinely out-perform religious schools. According to the College Board, for the last eight years average SAT math scores of New Jersey public high school students have exceeded those of religious school students. And New Jersey public high school students score higher than private school students on their Advanced Placement exams for college credit.

Myth #6 School Choice will encourage the creation of fraudulent schools.

E3’s “TRUTH” - Laws already exist against fraud to protect consumers in all areas. What could be a worse fraud on consumers of education and on taxpayers than the failure of many traditional public schools, year after year. [sic]

The REAL TRUTH:In Milwaukee, the Juanita Virgil Academy, which received $150,000 in vouchers to educate 83 students for two years, relied on education videos for classroom instruction. It lacked fire safety certificates, student immunization records, and test for lead-based paint. Two other Milwaukee voucher schools, enrolling 356 students, closed in the middle of a school year while their principals faced criminal charges. The founder and principal of Exito High School was convicted and jailed for falsifying enrollment figures to receive more tax dollars from the state. The founder and director of Milwaukee Preparatory was charged with mishandling public funds and fraud. He fled, and was arrested in Mississippi. Wisconsin taxpayers paid the two schools an estimated $390,000 for services never provided.

The chief executive of Alex’s Academic of Excellence was convicted of tax fraud, and during his trial, the public learned he had been convicted of rape and burglary. The judge who presided over the fraud trial said “It seems that (the voucher program) is easy pickings for people who are not inclined to be honest. “ These are just a few of the stories out of Milwaukee, and the Cleveland and Florida voucher programs have been victimized by numerous frauds. On July 28, the Orlando Sentinel reported that a Tampa voucher school was under indictment as a base of operations for a local terrorist cell.

Myth #7 School Choice will lead to the social, racial and economic separation of students.

E3’s “TRUTH” - The current public system already assigns students by where they live - which almost always separates them into social, racial and economic enclaves. Choice options such as public charter schools, private scholarships and public vouchers remove or reduce the importance of geography and political boundaries. Most inner-city private and charter schools are more diverse then their traditional public school counterparts.

The REAL TRUTH:Vouchers are not – and never will be – open to all students on an equal basis. Milwaukee’s public schools are 61 percent African-American. At the top three academic Catholic high schools, only 4-5 percent of the students are African-American. In Milwaukee, where students are supposed to be randomly selected for vouchers, the NAACP’s Milwaukee chapter complained to the state that 35 of the city’s voucher schools violated the random selection law. Several had not even filed a random selection plan with the state. Others had brief “open enrollment” periods prior to the beginning of the school year to target select groups of students for preferential treatment.

All available evidence from existing voucher programs – public and private – is that they do not alleviate social, racial, or economic segregation. As for charter schools, supporters often point out that they are more diverse than their public school counterparts. But that data varies greatly from school to school, and district to district, and can easily be misleading. For example, let’s look at a state that has 20 percent African-American enrollment. A charter school in that state with 30 percent African-American enrollment may have a higher percentage of African-American students than its counterparts statewide. But what if the district in which it is located has 50 percent African-American enrollment? Is the school more – or less – racially balanced?

Myth #8 Public funding of schools with religious affiliations violates the constitutional ban against public support for such institutions.

E3’s “TRUTH” - Wisconsin's Supreme Court ruled that Milwaukee's program of taxpayer-funded vouchers was constitutional because the parents, not the government, chose where the child went to school. And the U.S. Supreme Court voted 8 to 1 not to review that case, letting it stand. Also, public monies have, for decades, supported religiously-affiliated preschool programs and colleges through such programs as the G.I. Bill and Pell Grants.

The REAL TRUTH: The U.S. Supreme Court June 2002 ruling upholding the Cleveland voucher case (why doesn’t E3 talk about that?) is widely regarded as an abomination with respect to the First Amendment of the Constitution (prohibiting “the establishment of religion”). The Court’s 5-4 majority ruled that because the Cleveland voucher program was open to all religious and non-religious private schools, it did not violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. But the Court ignored the fact that 96 percent of Cleveland voucher students attend religious schools. The New York Times, in an editorial opposing the ruling, wrote:

“Once students enroll in those schools, they are subjected to just the sort of religious training the First Amendment forbids the state to underwrite. In many cases, students are required to attend Mass or other religious services. Tax dollars go to buy Bibles, prayer books, crucifixes, and other religious iconography. It is hard to think of a starker assault on the doctrine of separation of church and state than taking taxpayer dollars and using them to inculcate specific religious beliefs in young people.”

Myth #9 School Choice is just a subsidy for affluent suburbanites who already send their children to parochial and private schools. . [sic]

E3’s “TRUTH” - Most School Choice programs now in place around the country are limited to families with low incomes or families in poorly performing schools or districts, almost always in low-income areas. Affluent suburbanites are not eligible. In New Jersey, charter schools are not limited to low achieving districts, but most of those approved by the State are in urban areas.

The REAL TRUTH:In November 2000, statewide voucher initiatives in California and Michigan went down to crushing defeats. One reason they did was that vouchers would have been offered to parents already sending their children to private and religious schools. Both initiatives received strong financial support from Wal-Mart heir John Walton, whose family foundation provides $500,000 a year to E3. It’s a well-known fact that E3 and other voucher supporters want to use “limited” school choice (for low-income/minority families) as a first step toward getting broad-based vouchers for all parents. Walton even admitted in 1999 that his ultimate plan was to open a chain of private, for-profit schools once vouchers become public policy. If you want to know Walton’s true commitment to low-income/minority families, check how many Wal-Mart stores there are in the inner city.

For the record, if New Jersey had a statewide voucher program providing only $2,000 a year to families, and it were open to all families, the first $600 MILLION would go to families already sending their children to private and religious schools.

Myth #10 Private schools are unaccountable to the public.

E3’s “TRUTH” - Private schools and parochial schools already must comply with government regulations on fire and safety, compulsory attendance and core curriculum. They are at least as accountable, by the government's own measures, as any traditional public school. Most important, they are directly accountable to parents, who can remove their children when the school does not perform. If we trust parents, we'll have real accountability.

The REAL TRUTH: This is the biggest E3 lie of all. As noted above, private schools – not parents – do the choosing. The U.S. Department of Education surveyed private and religious schools, and found that only ONE-THIRD of them would accept vouchers if they had to randomly accept students. Between ONE-THIRD and ONE-HALF would accept vouchers if they had to administer the same tests that public schools must administer. And only about ONE-QUARTER of private and religious schools even accept students with special needs, such as learning disabilities, limited English proficiency, or low achievement.

In Milwaukee – which E3 touts as an example of a successful voucher program (even flying New Jerseyans to Milwaukee for carefully scripted tours of voucher schools) – voucher schools have a student attrition rate of between 23 and 44 percent A YEAR. Last year, the figure was over 30 percent. The students who leave voucher schools – primarily low-achievers and other “difficult to educate” children – are sent back to the public schools, while their voucher money –which comes out of public school budgets – stays with the voucher school for the remainder of the semester.

In 1995 the Wisconsin Legislature was so embarrassed by the fact that students in Milwaukee’s SAGE schools (public schools with small classes, excellent staff, before- and after-school programs, and high standards) out-scored voucher students on state tests that it voted to remove the requirement that voucher schools give those state tests. As a result, Milwaukee voucher schools have been TOTALLY UNACCOUNTABLE to the public since 1995.

Myth #11 School Choice is and [sic] anti-teacher ploy.

E3’s “TRUTH” - More choices for parents and students mean more choices for teachers. School Choice advocates know that there can be no good schools without good teachers. It's the teacher union bosses who oppose choice for fear of losing mandatory dues payments. They want to preserve the traditional public school monopoly because most charter schools and almost all private schools are not unionized. Many individual public school teachers already support choice for themselves. In the 100 largest cities in the U.S., public school teachers choose private schools for their own children at a higher rate than the general population.

The REAL TRUTH: NJEA and the vast majority of voters oppose vouchers because they’re bad public policy. Vouchers do not improve student achievement; they take money away from struggling urban schools; they are not open to all students despite the claims of their supporters; and they do nothing to improve public schools, which are left to educate 90 percent of all students with fewer resources.

E3’s attacks on teacher unions are filled with distortions. It’s a fact that public school students with unionized teachers score higher than those in schools without them. And for the record, NJEA can – and does – organize and represent charter school teachers (law forbids NJEA from organizing private school teachers). It’s a fact that public school teachers are more highly trained and educated than private/religious school teachers, who are generally paid much less. Unlike public school teachers, those at private and religious schools are not required to meet state certification requirements.

The claim that public school teachers are more likely to send their children to private schools is a flat-out lie that has been used by right-wing organizations for years in at attempt to discredit public education. National data shows that 10.1 percent of the general public send all of their children to private schools, compared to 8.4 percent of public school teachers. In fact, three out of four private school teachers send their children to public schools.

Myth #12 School Choice reforms do not address the needs of some families for special education.

E3’s “TRUTH” - In School Choice programs elsewhere in the U.S., participating schools may not exclude any eligible student based on special education needs.

The REAL TRUTH: The REAL TRUTH: This is a classic case of E3 telling their “truth” by avoiding the facts. True, participating voucher schools may not exclude students based on special needs. But as the U.S. Department of Education found, only ONE-FOURTH of private and religious schools have programs for special needs students. So, in Milwaukee and Cleveland, parents of special needs students are simply told by voucher schools that there is no program for their child, leaving them no “choice” at all. Private and religious schools don’t want special needs students because they are difficult and costly to educate – they’re not “cost-effective.” That fact, more than any other, speaks to the problem with vouchers and privatization. When the profit motive is an issue, parents of special needs students are certain losers.

Myth #13 Private schools will not be able to accommodate the influx of new students under a School Choice plan.

E3’s “TRUTH” - Where School Choice exists, private school buildings that were closed for financial reasons are opening up again to accommodate new students. Over a reasonable period of time, the existence of school choice will attract educatin [sic] providers.

The REAL TRUTH: In this instance, E3 is referring to Catholic schools that have been closed for financial reasons; their capacity, however, is extremely limited. As for non-religious private schools, most of them have few, if any, openings, and none of them are going to expand to accept voucher students.

But at least E3 finally gets to the truth behind vouchers in its final point. “Education providers” – who are eager to get their hands on public tax dollars currently spent on public schools – will pounce on those tax dollars under a broad-based voucher program, but they’re not going to be interested in students who aren’t “cost-effective” (high school students, special needs students, those with learning disabilities, those from troubled families or with disciplinary problems). John Walton – whose Walton Family Foundation gives $500,000 to E3 each year – told the Wall Street Journal in 1999 that he has a business plan for a chain of private, for-profit schools waiting to be unleashed as soon as vouchers become public policy. For John Walton, vouchers are about money, not education. Parents be warned.

Myth #14 School Choice programs siphon off the best students from traditional public schools, resulting in an overall decline in public school achievement.

E3’s “TRUTH” - In School Choice districts, those opting out of the public schools tend to be those doing most poorly, not the best. The best students tend to be happy with the traditional public school and remain where they are doing well. 'Creaming' of the student population simply has not happened.

The REAL TRUTH: The REAL TRUTH: As Annette “Polly” Williams, the African-American state legislator who authored the Milwaukee voucher program put it:

“We wanted parental choice. They’re talking about school choice. And when you’re talking about school choice, you’re not talking about parents selecting schools, you’re talking about schools selecting parents.” She also said: “There are members of the choice movement who are about destroying the public schools, who don’t care one bit about poor black children in the inner city.”

Margaret Hopkins, vice-chair of the Cleveland school board said:

“While vouchers are intended for families with limited resources, 40 percent of the enrollees in the last school year were from families above the poverty level and 25 percent of new voucher students were previously enrolled in private schools. Vouchers have taken scarce dollars away from our public schools and have done nothing for our 76,000 students. Where are the benefits to Cleveland’s public school children from Ohio’s voucher program?”

With all due respect, E3 either hasn’t done its homework, or is deliberately misleading visitors to its website. Parents accessing the Cleveland voucher program tend to have higher incomes and higher levels of education – both indicators of higher achievement levels for their students. And large pluralities of students in both the Milwaukee and Cleveland voucher programs never attended public schools prior to receiving vouchers – meaning taxpayers are paying for the education of students who previously attended private and religious schools at their parents’ expense.